The Extra Instinct
by Pheonie
Summary: Because every villain has their own Achilles Heel of humanity. (Meruem/Komugi)


Hello everyone! I decided to write this short snippet for myself. I was re-watching the anime and I finally go to the point I had originally stopped. The scenes between Meruem and Komugi are new for me and _really_ stabbed at my heart and I just needed release. I used to hate Meruem when he was born, but now… I know that every day is a fight for him. It's all internal though- his battle is with his very genes.

-x-x-x-

When he was born into the world, he had been caught up in a frenzy of very, very strong feelings. He later learned those were called "instincts." Desires bloomed in his gut, and he sated his hunger easily because it seemed _everyone_ in the world bowed at his every whim. He fed with gusto, felt surges of pure unadulterated _power_, and learned to crave it. Again and again until sometimes he felt like he would explode from all the raw power he was _consuming._

Those instincts fed him dreams of a powerful empire, of world domination, or exerting his will on even the smallest form of life. Really, he didn't have very nice _instincts._ And honestly, he probably would have continued his rampage of his many lusts and _instincts _had he not been brought to his knees by a little girl.

A little, _very messy _girl. It wasn't her fault of course, for the little girl was blind as well.

He had just been… what's the best way to say it, _awakening_, when he first met her. He was a bit disoriented, like he had finally risen from the peaceful depths of a vast and quiet ocean into a harsh, bright world. Before his limbs acted now, he asked _why._ When his brain forced images of grandeur and conquest, he felt _bored._ When he felt the unexplainable need to _kill _someone for putting a single toe out of line, _he wondered why he didn't care. _Someone, he can't remember who, probably one of his three royal guards, told him it was called instinct. Carefully bred instinct to create the most powerful Chimera Ant of all.

So really, it was comical that what crippled the fearsome Chimera King was a blind little girl.

It was because of his… awakening that he had developed a fascination with human games. Chess, Shogi, Go, and lastly… Gungi. Human lives seemed to follow the beat of a certain pattern, a rhythm if you will. Disturb that pattern and the human shattered. He went through multiple opponents a day, basking in his easy victories over them, relishing his superiority when finally they brought before him a fifteen year old girl with skinned knees and an inexplicable gentle expression.

He thought she was an absolute joke, but that was what likely saved her from being stabbed to death by his tail immediately. She was too blind to see his fearsome appearance and obviously too dumb to let her imagination create the image for her. She was a stumbling wreck that was prone to hurting herself and even more prone to making self-deprecating remarks about herself. He was fascinated by her ability to appear both unintelligent and undignified. He laughed himself sick at the thought that technically she was many, _many_ years older than him.

But… as soon as she sat across from him, Gungi board between them, she _changed_. She had opened her unseeing pale blue eyes and he had suddenly been stuck by the seriousness in her expression as she moved her pieces into place, as if she was pouring all of her heart and soul into every move. Turns out, she was. When she played Gungi, she looked like a _Queen._

It took him an hour to realize she would not be so easy to beat like the past few humans.

It took him a day to realize he didn't even mind losing to her anymore. He _enjoyed _it.

It took him three days to ask for her name. Komugi.

It was approaching the end of the week when he stumbled upon her being bullied to tears by a crow chimera ant.

_It _had hit him in a flash. It took him maybe a millisecond, or maybe it was half a millisecond, to take in her soft cries of pain and bloodied arms and hands from where she had tried to protect herself. And _it_ roared through his system in a way he had nearly forgotten and made his vision absolutely _swim_ with red. _It _took control of him with such ferocity he thought it was a wonder he could be considered himself at all. When the roar died down and he realized the crow was a mere smear of blood on the ground, he figured out that... he _knew_ this feeling.

Why, _it_ was instinct. _Instinct _drew him forward like a puppet on strings as he crouched down to her level to stare helplessly at her wounds. _It _made him shake as he couldn't decide if the scratch on her cheek needed more attention than the bite marks on her arm. _It _made his heart race like a frightened rabbit when she didn't seem to immediately recognize him. When she finally turned to him and thanked him and sobbed out her fear and pain, _it_ told him to draw her close, to wrap his arms around her… to make her feel safe. But… it also made _him_ very fearful of the future to come, for his enemies were lining at his door, and those _other _instincts were bound to strike him soon.

He cursed the instincts he had been born with.

For having both sets.

Human and Ant.

For he knew…

These instincts were going to tear him apart more effectively than any enemy.

-x-x-x-

_SOBSOB. I love these two so much together. They wring my heart in all directions. I know they're both going to die because I spoiled the anime for myself, but I haven't gotten there yet in the anime and I know its coming and omg feels. Review if you'd like!_


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